The Rocher team Civil Guard was used extensively in an investigation – in which a corporal stationed in Los Pedroches participated – after detecting the increase in cattle thefts in the Peñarroya-Pueblonuevo area between 2015 and 2017, discovered through telephone tapping authorized by the court, a conspiracy between traffickers. livestock, feedlots, disinfection companies and owners from farms that introduced unidentified animals into the market.
Nine people were arrested during the operation, including a Civil Guard corporal who informed the alleged leader of the plot on how he should act to escape the agents, accused of having committed a crime. crime of omission of duty to prosecute crimes who now risks disqualification penalties.
The Prosecutor’s Office, in its provisional indictment, to which ABC had access, considers six of the nine accused responsible for continuing crimes of falsification in a public document on one side of the guides of origin or transport of animals and ear tags, just as in reference to disinfection certificates of the truck, as well as the crime of failure to prosecute the crimes of the Civil Guard corporal who participated in the plot.
The article from the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which ABC has had access to, states that the accused BGB – the alleged leader of the plot who faces six years in prison – without specifying whether he owns a livestock farm or anyone in his family, is dedicated to the buying and selling livestock On commission, as a livestock broker and with the aim of increasing his profits, he purchased livestock of unknown origin from different breeders whose production was compromised and who could therefore not sell freely, or who belonged to a farm paralyzed because of having tested positive for a livestock disease.
This cattle broker, by mutual agreement with the owner of a feedlot in the region, JMA, for protect livestock In this way, he requested guides and ear tags from third-party breeders, including the also accused MR, to give an appearance of legality to the livestock introduced into the market. Once in possession of the livestock, he transfers it to feedlots owned by two other defendants (DH and JR or JMA), all aware of the unknown origin of these cattle.
With this modus operandi, the prosecutor claims that in March 2017, these individuals maintained a series of telephone conversations intervened to reach an agreement and obtain ear tags and guides (documents allowing animals to leave a farm for transport). On April 24, a Roca team carried out a inspection in one of the farms where these movements took place and they checked how the lambs without ear tags were loaded onto the truck driven by one of the accused.
In total, 1,459 sheep and two goats were located, without identification. 152 heads. The agents also checked that in the truck, in each of the 18 partitions, there were still four sheep without ear tags, apparently with the intention of camouflaging them in case of a check. Similarly, other 154 sheep They came from a farm crippled by brucellosis, pending counter-analysis. The defendants were unable to provide data on the farm from which the cattle came.
Purchasing ear tags for a farm without livestock
In the same investigation, officers found over a hundred sheep without ear tags in one of the defendants’ feedlots. Another defendant had acquired, as the owner of a livestock farm more than 20,000 ear tags between 2014 and 2017, despite the fact that I had no cattle Some of them owned them at the time, so the data recorded in the guides, according to the prosecution, “was not accurate and the ear tags were used to identify livestock that fell out of them.”
In this plot there was also a owner accused from a disinfection company approved by the Authorities who was responsible for publishing reports on truck disinfection where these animals, also fake, were transported.
Former Roca Team Agent
Finally, the prosecution highlights the role played in this plot by a first corporal of the Civil Guard and then destined for this northern region. “To carry out these actions, the accused BGB, a cattle dealer, as well as the other accused would have the external support of the accused corporal of the Civil Guard who, due to his position, is aware of the investigations carried out by the Rock bands on cattle thefts in the area, as well as inspections of farms belonging to some of the accused, providing advice on how avoid sanctions and by informing them of some of the police interventions carried out and by failing to communicate and open an investigation into the alleged crimes of which he was aware between 2015 and 2017.
Specifically, the prosecution claims that this corporal “advised the cattle broker because of his knowledge of the facts and because he had already been to Serpona.” I just said two accused that if they were called from the barracks to give evidence, they should not do so and that they should say that if they were called from the court, they would go to their lawyer, that the complaints would come to nothing and that in any case they would face administrative sanctions which could be appealed.
The public prosecutor considers that the facts constitute continuing offences of lie in a public document in reference to the guides of origin and transport of animals and ear tags, as well as an offence of falsification of the document of truck disinfectionas well as an offence of failing to prosecute offences and another offence of revealing secrets.
Feed for fattening livestock in another Civil Guard operation in an archive image
For the first offence of persistent lying, the prosecutor considers him responsible six of nine accused, BRB, LP, MR, JMA, DH and JR who each face three years in prison and a fine of 3,600 euros. On the other hand, the crime of lie in a public document Regarding the disinfection certificates, the prosecution is requesting three years in prison for BRB, DMN and CB and another fine of 3,600 euros.
Finally, for the first accused of the Civil Guard, the prosecution requests a sentence of three years of special prohibition of employment or public office and for crime of revealing secrets a fine of 5,400 euros and a ban on holding public office or employment for three years.
